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Re: Do you have any plans to support futures?[ Message Board ] [ Archives ] [ Search ] Posted by Joe on January 14, 2007 at 14:03:42: In Reply to: Re: Do you have any plans to support futures? posted by Mark on January 14, 2007 at 10:05:08: : : I have downloaded a trial version of your software, and the only thing which is missing for me is support for futures. : : If you restrict yourself to cash settled futures, I think the job would not be too complex. : : I'd be happy to provide free consultation on proper accounting for these instruments - I have an MBA in finance and many years of trading experience. : : In any case, you've produced a fine piece of software, and I hope that you -- one day -- are able to add support for futures so that I can use for my portfolio. : Hi Joe, : Thanks for the offer of help. I would be interested to hear your ideas on what it would take to track cash settled futures. If you prefer, you can send them by email. Just follow the "Contact Us" link on the top of the page. Posting them here is also fine... : Thanks, Let's choose a future which I'm currently trading: March 2007 S&P 500 E-Mini futures listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). Here is a link to the CME description of the S&P E-Mini Futures: http://www.cme.com/trading/prd/contract_list_ES702.html Notice that two expirations are currently trading - March 2007 (ESH7) and June 2007 (ESM7). The first two letters (ES) indicate that this is a CME S&P 500 E-Mini Future, the third letter indicates the expiration month (http://www.cme.com/trading/res/cch/mnthcodes11234.html), and the last letter is the expiration year. These particular futures expire on the third friday of the expiration month. This naming convention is typical. Notice that CME Nasdaq 100 futures (ND) have a similar naming convention: (http://www.cme.com/trading/prd/contract_list_XH704.html) For ESM7, Yahoo Finance has data under the (unconventional symbol name) ESM07.CME The user can figure out the symbol name used on Yahoo and place it in the stock properties dialog in Fund Manager as the symbol. When someone buys (sells) a future, there is no immediate effect on cash (except for commissions). Instead, on the day of the trade, the buyer's cash is increased (decreased) if the future closes above his trade price. The increase (decrease) in cash is the price difference multiplied by the futures contract's multiplier. The multiplier for ESH7 (and ESM7, etc...) is 50. You can have the user enter this on the symbol properties screen or maybe get it from here: http://www.cme.com/trading/prd/contract_spec_ES702.html When calculating portfolio value, the futures will always have zero value. They only affect portfolio value indirectly by changing the amount of cash in your account. Here is a link to another source of live (slightly delayed) quotes for CME futures: CME has the largest options and futures contracts open interest (number of contracts outstanding) of any futures exchange in the world. -- source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Mercantile_Exchange Moreover, the CME's futures and options are all cash settled (I think). Non-cash settled futures leave you sitting with something physical at the end (like pork bellies or gold). The CME also has quotes online for all of their products: If any of this is unclear, or you'd like more detail, please let me know -- either on this forum or via email (Take out the NO_SPAM_FOR_ME from my email address). I'm a programmer too (for over 25 years -- mostly C# these days), so feel to throw around terms like hash tables or inheritance or whatever if you want to talk about implementation details :-) -- Joe
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